Wedding day catastrophes

We’ve all head horror stories of what could possibly go wrong on our wedding day. When we hear these stories, a million ways to prevent our own wedding day calamities begins to run through our minds. Here are a few wedding day catastrophes that you can take simple steps to prevent.

The wedding cake

Hopefully nothing like this happens (and it is such a lovely cake too! and you can even hear the bride crying), but if it is a worry for you, you can help prevent this:

• Balance the cake in the center of the table
• Make sure you have a sturdy table, not just a flimsy folding card table
• When cakes melt and slip, adding a wooden dowel in an out-of-site place in the cake can add extra stability and keep the top from sliding off.
• The best ways to prevent cake accidents are to hire an event planner and to have the cake professionally made and set up by professionals.

The music

As many hours and as much money as you spent researching and hiring a live band or DJ, sometimes things go wrong. Band members could become ill, there could be car trouble or some other event that delays your band or DJ arriving on time for your wedding. Have a backup plan: burn a CD of your wedding music and get a hold of something to play it on. It may not be the best music quality, but at least the mood the music brings will be celebratory.

The weather

On bride I knew told me her biggest catastrophe on her wedding day (in September of 1971) was the sudden rain storm that hit her backyard wedding. Although the storm held off until after the ceremony, that didn’t stop the wind from whipping her bridal veil into the sky and blowing all of the tablecloths away. Now she can chuckle about it, 37 years later.

Brides today certainly don’t want to wait 37 years to get over a incident at their wedding. So, what can you do to keep your veil in place and rain off your guests? Plan ahead. Have an indoor location reserved, just in case. Even a few tents could keep the day full of cheer and your wedding dry. Remember, you can’t do anything about the weather, but you can plan for it.

The food

There is a saying, “the husband or wife is always the last to find out,” and this certainly applies to the bride and groom when it comes to the food at their wedding. Many times the bride and groom are locked into the receiving line and don’t actually get to taste any of the food. Your guests will be far too polite (hopefully) to tell you that the food is terrible. To ensure this doesn’t happen to you, don’t be casual about the caterer you hire.

Schedule tastings with 3-5 caterers and bring a group with you: groom, mom, bridesmaid or anyone else whose opinion you value and trust. At the end of the day you’ll have a great idea of which food will be a hit with you and your guests.

The unruly or drunk guest

This one is tough. There is really no way for you to know which guest is going to be the fly in the ointment. If you are totally sure of everyone you’ve invited, one way to skirt this problem is to specify in the invitation that there are to be no uninvited guests (this is a sensitive area, but usually you can skip adding + guest to invitations).

If you don’t know every guest intimately, your best options may include a bouncer (can you imagine a large guy in a tight t-shirt with crossed arms glaring at guests?) or you could simply not serve alcohol. That is one surefire way for guests to maintain their decorum (short of searching everyone prior to entering the reception).

Minor setbacks

Of course there are the little setbacks that happen at weddings: a lost button, torn skirt, thirst, hunger, kids crying. but compared to some other problems your wedding could have, these are super easy to handle.

Make a survival kit:

• Needle and thread, in white and black or to match your colors
• Water bottle(s)
• Snacks- cookies, granola bars, energy bars and other handy snacks that won’t mess up clothes (fruit snacks for kids are a big hit)
• Games for kids, as well as someone to watch them (but people won’t fit in a cute tote)
• Hair brush, make-up, baby powder, extra accessories and bobby pins
• travel size tissues, toothbrush, scope, mints and hand sanitizer

You can really fill these survival kits with more items that you think will help those in the wedding party.

Hopefully you won’t have any wedding day “incidents” and only have a day full of happiness and fun, but taking even a few simple steps will go a long way to preventing some unhappy moments.